MPAA SLAMS “NOTORIOUS” PIRATE DVD MARKETS IN AUSTRALIA

The Motion Picture Association of America has accused Australia of failing to enforce its own laws banning the sale of pirated DVDs in the country. According to today’s (Tuesday) Sydney Morning Herald, the MPAA charged that Australia’s state and federal police have “shown no interest in enforcing the issue despite multiple entreaties from rights holders.” It particularly singled out the outdoor marketplace Caribbean Gardens and Markets, located in Scoresby, Victoria, near Melbourne, calling it a “notorious physical market” where between 10 and 20 stalls offer counterfeit DVDs of recently released movies. Such markets located in Australia and other countries, the MPAA said, represent an “immediate threat to legitimate commerce, impairing legitimate markets” viability and curbing US competitiveness.” But the operations manager of Caribbean Gardens, Robbie Ager, maintained that the MPAA’s report was outdated. ”We do have a bad history,” he said. ”We used to be notorious for pirated DVDs but that’s changed. ‘We don’t have 10 or 20 DVD retailers; we only have five, and all of them sell legitimate discs they have been imported from America.”